TRANSCRIPT

NATHAN JONES

Welcome back for episode 22 with Paulo Feniman, who serves as both the Executive Director of Africa Inland Mission in South America and Board Chair for the Brazilian Missions Association. God is doing some incredible work in South America and you will have a front-row seat to hear about it today.

I'm Nathan Jones. Thank you again for joining me for this episode of the Inspiring Stewards podcast.

Paulo, thank you again for your time today. I'm looking forward to and have been for some time to this conversation and for getting to know your story and how God is working in you and through you. So, let's get started. Give us a bit of your background, where you grew up, your family of origin, that sort of thing.

PAULO FENIMAN

Thank you, Nathan. It's really good to stay and participate in here.

Well, I grew up in Brazil. I'm a Brazilian. All my family is involved with church since I know, grandparents and parents. Well, I grow up in the Christian context. For a long period, I follow my parents serving the church in different ways. That was not strange when I understood that OK, I can do something more specifically and have a deeply involvement in a kind of a ministry.

I started with 16 years old when I went to talk with my pastor and I told him, “I need to do something, I want to be a missionary.” Of course, I was looking for another thing. I was looking to go somewhere to get some training, to do some Bible college or something like that.

And he told me, “Oh! Do you want to be a missionary? That's great. But let me tell you something. Missionaries are those ones that preach Jesus where no one know about Him. And we are starting this new ministry close to our church here in our neighborhood. You go there, you preach the gospel, you’ll be a missionary.” Was not the answer I was looking for but that was my first experience.

So, growing in a Christian family, a family that always were serving at the church, in certain period of my life, I decide I need to do something more deeply. And this is how all things started. This is the short story, of course.

After that, I went to university. I went to the Bible College. I went to the market. I'm a graphic designer. I worked for more than ten years as a graphic designer. And then, I came back for a mission organization because we realized that God was calling us to be involved very deeply in terms of a ministry at this point.

NATHAN

I want to come back then and pick up the story of how that got you to today. But let me go backwards just a bit and say: What was it in your heart? What was the vision that God put in your life early on that led you into that deeper relationship with Him and kind of set you on that trajectory for missions?  Was it a particular sermon? Or was it a book? Or was it something your parents said? Or was it just an experience you had?

PAULO

That was a group from a mission organization visiting our church. That was a mission conference. We had this group of people serving in different places. They came to mobilize the church.

And in fact, two things happened in that day. Because when I start to listen in their stories, when I start to see what they were doing, something inside me told me, “I want to do exactly the same what these guys are doing.”

No idea what means that, no idea what's coming. But I went home, and I was praying in my room, and I say, “God, I want to be like those guys. I'm not sure what exactly means that but I want to do what they do.”

And I felt very clear God was spoken to me and say, “Okay, that's great! But the life that you are living will not help you to be a missionary or do what they are doing.”

So basically, my personal story with Christ and my call for mission happened at the same time because I realized that, “OK, I need to give all my life to Jesus, not living how I'm living. But I really need to give all my life to Jesus.” So, that came same time and that was amazing because after that a lot of things changed.

NATHAN

That's fascinating. Well, bring us up to today then. You are on that missions trajectory. You kind of learned over time what it was that these guys did and what aligned with God's vision for your life. And so, catch us up to today. You're outside São Paulo, Brazil, but you wear a number of hats. So, what does God have you up to these days?

PAULO

I'm living in the south of Brazil. It's a small town. São Paulo is too crazy. So, we decided to live in a peace and calm place. But nowadays, I'm leading Africa Inland Mission, the headquarter for South America.

Here in South America, we are mobilized. So, we work with church and people and Bible colleges, mobilizing people that want to work in Africa, training them, support them, sending them, providing pastoral care, and all that they need to be fruitful in terms of ministry in Africa.

This is my main ministry. I have been serving with AIM since 2000. So, 23 years now. The last 18 years as Executive Director for South America.

And also, one of my passions is networks. So, I have been serving with two different networks. First one is the Brazilian Mission Association. We have more than 120 mission organizations and churches that's part of this association. And also, I'm serving COMIBAM. That's Ibero-America Mission Cooperation. In both cases, I'm serving as a chair of their boards. 

NATHAN

That's tremendous! So, you've got such perspective on missions. I always love to hear stories of how countries other than the United States are sending missionaries to other parts of the world to see God's beautiful kingdom picture coming together.

So, let's pivot to this topic of stewardship and this is the Inspiring Stewards podcast. Paulo, what role does stewardship play in your life? Or what are some themes, some lessons that God has taught you about this concept of stewardship, however specific or broad, He lays on your heart?

PAULO

I would say, it's the main thing in terms of what we do here in our ministry. Because I'm in the middle of two parts. I'm in the middle of those ones that are serving cross-culturally, and I'm the middle of those ones that are supporting that ones outside.

And as a mission organization, we are responsible to receive all funds from sponsors, all funds from churches, all foundations, and all financial resource. And we are responsible to send to them.

And always, I have a wonderful team working with me here, and always I'm trying to say to them, “This is God's money. Yes, it came from this church or came from this person. It is for this project or is for support this family, but it’s still God's money.”

And all of that includes good administration, care that this money can arrive at the right time, and you can provide mechanisms and systems that you can receive the money here that will bless someone outside in the desert of north Kenya or in a village of South Sudan. It's really important!

So, with this sense of, "This money does not belong to me. This money does not to belong to our organization, even this money does not belong to the missionary or the project. This money belongs to God."

That means stewardship is really, really the main thing, the key about what we do here as this connector between both parts. And of course, to provide the best care for people, it's part of that. You provide the best administration of their money is the main thing in terms of what we do here.

So, in my experience, always we talk about many things in terms of mission. We talk about the ministry that we do on the field. We talk about church planting. We talk about discipleship or leadership training and all this. But sometimes we are not talking about how God wants us to care for His money, for His kingdom, and for His business. And this for me is really important!

And maybe to have clear understanding the size of the responsibility that we have when we are dealing with God's money.

I think this is what keeps always my eyes open to say, “This is not money from this church or that missionary. This is money that belongs to God, and I need to care this money and use this money the best way as possible.”

NATHAN

That’s a great perspective and to trust that He can do far more with it than we can. So, talking about God and staying on that same theme, how are you seeing God at work in your world around local or you have a much larger global perspective? How are you seeing God at work today? 

PAULO

It is really amazing to see how God is moving around the world. I'm living here in Brazil. We have a lot of conversation about what God is doing in the Global South and especially in Latin America, Africa, and parts of Asia.

But looking here, what God is doing here in Brazil, and see how many missionaries we sent in these past years. I remember in 2007, people were saying, “Oh, we need to celebrate because we are almost 7,000-8,000 cross-cultural missionaries from Brazil serving in different places.”

In 2017, that means ten years after that, a new survey, we realized: Well, we are 22,000 cross-cultural missionaries nowadays. And 2023, we are talking about probably 25,000 Brazilians serving outside.

That's God! God is moving. God is calling people and working through the church, the Brazilian church, to send people out, especially for place where we have the biggest unreached people groups living in regions where the necessity of the gospel is really real.

But also, when we talk about finance for example, and we talk about stewardship, I also need to recognize that God is providing innovation, creative ways to support and help these people.

If you're looking for the Brazilian history in terms of economy, we always, not in one period, but always we have all this exchange fluctuation, problems with the dollars going up, and inflation problems with the economy. But this never was something that stopped us to send more people.

In fact, if you're looking very deeply in our history, you will see that in the times that we were facing the more difficult were times when we send more people. What's the answer for that? That's God's provision.

It's God calling people and providing everything that these people need to do their ministry. And again, this is amazing, looking for the Brazilian church and see what the Brazilian church is doing.

NATHAN

Do you see other South American countries with an increase of missionaries being sent or something unique in Brazil?

PAULO  

Yeah, definitely. I just came from Bolivia a few weeks ago. I went to Bolivia to mobilize church and mobilize a few different groups there in two different cities. I met a lot of people. I met many, many people saying, “I'm here studying because I want to serve in West Africa. I want to serve in South Asia. I want to serve in this place, in that place.”

Definitely, God is moving not just in Brazil, but in all Latin America and helping us to find ways to send these people. Some of them, they are going as professionals. Some of them are going and find jobs in different places.

But all of them has a clear understanding that they are going to preach the gospel, to reach out to those ones that need to listen to the good news about Jesus. Yes, definitely, God is working in all Latin America in different ways.

NATHAN

That’s wonderful! Paulo, as we wrap up, any final thoughts you have for those listening in today on anything we've covered or any anything else you'd like to say?

PAULO

I want to say that the most important for us as individuals that want to serve God in God's way. Because that's a difference. It's not just to serve God. It's to serve God in His way – is trust Him. Trust Him that He is helping us. He is leading us. His Spirit is guiding us in all the situations that we have and all situations that we need some answers.

This has been my own story. As a family, we have been seeing God's leading us in different ways, in different moments in our lives. But I have been seeing this also in many of my friends, not just in Brazil, but outside Brazil that are serving.

I think, trust that God calls us, will help us, and provide everything that we need to serve Him is the most important truth that we need to observe for our lives. Sometimes, I see some people saying, “Oh, I want to serve, but I'm not sure if I will be possible to raise funds or I will be possible to go or do this or do that.”

So, this is something that walk together, understand that God's direction, but also put all our trust in Him that He will do what is needed to see fruitful ministry in our lives, to glorify His name.

NATHAN

That's wonderful. Paulo, thank you for your time today. This has been tremendous.

PAULO

Yeah, that was great! Thank you, Nathan.